Housing News

LA QUINTA -- First in a four-part series -- Like a lot of houses here, the Spanish-style five-bedroom Gary and Debra Magsam bought three years ago has a sparkling pool, a designer kitchen and a nearby golf ...

Robert Lindsey was not surprised by new data last week that showed new home sales in the United States have fallen more than 40 per cent from their peak almost three years ago.

When Osman and Rose Bangura bought a two-family home three years ago at the peak of a housing boom, they saw a good investment in the $400,000 colonial, just a quarter-mile from the Merrimack River and the ...

NEW home sales growth was flat in April as home buyers continued to struggle with high interest rates and the rising cost of living, a survey found.

"It's the economy, stupid," James Carville famously said during the 1992 campaign, when a young Bill Clinton was running against the other President Bush.

Saturday, May 31, 2008; Page A12

The May 25 front-page story "Safety Lapses Raised Risks in Trailers for Katrina Victims" implicated formaldehyde in health problems among those who lived in Federal Emergency Management Agency trailers and mobile homes. But the trailers were tested only for formaldehyde in the air, not for formaldehyde in the products used in them. Thus it is impossible to know whether higher emissions came from domestic or imported composite wood products or from some other source. As the article mentioned, formaldehyde comes from many sources; given that these were occupied units, cooking, as well as cigarettes, bedding, appliances, paint and a whole host of other products also might have contributed to formaldehyde levels. Other agents, such as mold and mildew, can cause similar symptoms, but they were not measured in this study.

Imports must meet all federal and state standards as well as the purchasing specifications their customers set. Many U.S.-manufactured goods (including domestically produced plywood) have used imported components for decades, and U.S. consumers have benefited greatly from the resulting lower costs and from the quality.

BRENT McCLENDON Executive Vice-President International Wood Products Association Alexandria

Homes sales in the Fairbanks area have fallen from the same time a year ago, but the Fairbanks Board of Realtors reported that the local housing market has largely missed a housing slump seen around the United ...

A state-by state look at the economies of New England states, from Friday's forecast by the New England Economic Partnership: * Vermont: The state is expected to see a modest turnaround from the current ...

U.S. Mortgage Rates Up Slightly Last Week by Staff Interest rates for 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages increased in the United States in the last week, the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp.

Housing legislation Congress is expected to pass in the coming weeks includes something for everyone caught up in the current crisis - struggling homeowners about to be foreclosed, lenders holding bad loans and ...

Property damage resulting from defective construction is unquestionably excluded in the commercial general liability policy; but what about bodily injury? And is injury or damage caused by the growth and proliferation of mold covered because it is not excluded by the unendorsed CGL?

With home prices dropping across the country, finding a boom town where prices are holding steady is a rarity.

The regulator who oversees national banks is protesting an agreement by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to stop buying mortgages involving lenders' in-house appraisers, a deal intended to protect buyers from ...

A Dallas suburb's ban on apartment rentals to illegal immigrants, an ordinance passed by city leaders and later endorsed in a vote by its residents, is unconstitutional, a federal judge found Wednesday.

Home prices continue to fall sharply in Massachusetts, although the decline in the number of homes sold is easing.

President Bush, sounding upbeat as consumer confidence swooned, said Tuesday that the government's effort to stimulate the economy is just starting to kick in.

By JOHN MORENO GONZALES Associated Press Writer BAY ST. LOUIS, MISS. (AP) "It's tragic that when people most need the protection, they are actually going from one disaster to a health disaster that might be considered worse," said Christopher De Rosa, assistant director for toxicology and risk assessment at the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, an arm of the CDC. "Given the longer-term implications of exposure that went on for a significant period of time, people should be followed through time for possible effects."

The federal government is filing fewer housing discrimination charges even as consumer complaints against landlords, real estate agents and mortgage brokers have risen steadily.

Published: May 27th, 2008 07:28 AM Last Modified: May 27th, 2008 07:29 AM Treasury prices slid Tuesday after the three-day weekend, with stocks mostly edging higher and investors unable to shake their inflation ...

U.S. home prices dropped at the sharpest rate in two decades during the first quarter, a closely watched index showed Tuesday, a somber indication that the housing slump continues to deepen.

Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller said its national home price index fell 14.1 percent in the first quarter compared with a year earlier, the lowest since its inception in 1988. The quarterly index covers all nine U.S. Census divisions.

Prices nationwide are at levels not seen since the third quarter of 2004, according to Maureen Maitland, a S&P vice president. However, the index is still up 60 percent versus 2000.